Van der Burgh stuns Peaty as South Africa swimmers shine

Cameron van der Burgh stunned world-record holder Adam Peaty to win the 50m breaststroke gold medal on a big night in the pool for South Africa at the Commonwealth Games yesterday.

Apart from van der Burgh's triumph, Chad le Clos clinched the butterfly treble with victory in the 100m final for his 16th Commonwealth Games medal and Tatjana Schoenmaker completed a breaststroke double with victory in the 100m final.

The boilovers kept coming on the penultimate night of the swimming, with Bronte Campbell upstaging her sister Cate's bid for a fourth gold medal with a stirring come-from-behind win in the 100m freestyle.

Bronte, 23, produced a Games record time of 52.27 seconds as she stormed home in the final 15 metres to overtake her 25-year-old sister.

Van der Burgh hurtled off the starting blocks and defied Peaty's efforts to run him down in the frantic one-lapper, winning in 26.58 seconds to inflict a rare defeat on the Englishman and complete a 50m hat-trick.

The South African, who beat Peaty in the event at the 2014 Glasgow Games, celebrated wildly by punching the water before climbing on to the lane rope and pumping his fists in delight.

Peaty has proved indestructible in the 50m and 100m in recent years and was expected to carry off the breaststroke double, but London Olympic 100m champion van der Burgh had other ideas.

"To get the triple in the 50 breast and to come through the years and finish on such a high is something that is really special," van der Burgh said.

Elsewhere, Mitch Larkin became the first man to win the backstroke treble at the Commonwealth Games, leading an Australian clean sweep in the 200m final.

Larkin won gold in 1:56.10 from Bradley Woodward and Josh Beaver to add to his previous wins in the 50 and 100m events on the Gold Coast.

Teenager Ariarne Titmus claimed Australia's first victory in the Games' 800m freestyle in 20 years with a storming win in 8:20.02, in another one-two-three for the hosts. - AFP, REUTERS